The present invention relates to mobile telephone short text messaging and, in particular, to a concurrent display of one or more past messages and a new message that is being composed.
Mobile telephone systems include a variety of services and functions beyond simple direct voice communication. One such service is short text messaging in which short text messages, sometimes of up to a maximum length, are sent between mobile telephones and other digital devices in accordance with a mobile telephone short message service (SMS) standard (e.g., GSM Phase 1).
Instant messaging is a communication service that is similar to mobile telephone short message service, but with instant messaging users commonly use personal computers as the client communication device. Mobile telephone short message services and instant messaging are similar in that a message originator composes a message (i.e., on a specialized telephone or computer, respectively) and sends the message across a communication network to a recipient. In the context of mobile telephone systems, both messaging types may be referred to as mobile telephone short text messaging.
In conventional mobile telephone short text messaging a user typically must manually check for new messages or manually navigate through one or more display screens to view a new message when it arrives. In the latter case, the user is often notified by an intrusive audible or visual alert rather than simply seeing new messages scroll by on the screen. In this conventional messaging, a user typically must flip between different screens to view old messages and type new ones. Since short text messaging is generally an informal means of communication with a rapid exchange of brief messages, an alert for each message and a need to flip or switch between display screens for each message detracts from the communication experience and can reduce it to being analogous to email.
Accordingly, the present invention includes a mobile telephone text messaging device having an integrated display rendered on a display screen. In one implementation, the integrated display includes a past message display segment of static text and a message composition segment that functions as an input field. The past message display segment and the message composition segment are rendered together simultaneously.
The static text of the past message display segment is used to display one or more past messages, and the input field of the message composition segment allows the user to input a new message on the same screen. This gives a user the impression that all of the text messaging occurs within a single display window with a direct connection to the other text messaging participant or participants. This integrated display contrasts with most other mobile telephone messaging systems, which typically feel more like offline message-management systems with menu-structured user interfaces.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.